This speech was delivered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on 28 November 2024 at a World AIDS Day reception at 10 Downing Street. 

Thank you all for coming to Downing Street to Mark World AIDS Day at the first such reception since Gordon Brown was Prime Minister. I don’t want to get too party political but that is far too long. We must never let this sort of gap happen ever again. 
I want to thank in particular Terrence Higgins Trust, National AIDS Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation for joining us. Thank you all for being here. You thank us for hosting you but you shouldn’t. You are entitled to be here. Because I stood on those steps the day after the election and said that this would be a government about service. Serving our communities, serving you. And therefore you are entitled to be in here. You are entitled to be in this building. Because this is about you and if we’re a government of service then this is your place just as much as it’s my place.  

What’s really great for me this evening is remembering when a year ago, when we were in opposition, we were in the Speaker’s House, Elton was there if you remember. And I made a commitment then about what we would do if we were privileged enough to come into government. And to be able to bring you in to this room a year on, now we’re in government, to tell you what we’re doing and to honour the commitment that I made to you really matters, it really matters to me. 

Let me say those words. It matters to me, it matters to my government, and this is a priority. And I’ve only got a green pen not a blue pen, but I can get it out ready for that tick that we’re going to be putting across because it is so important that we do so. 
And so much has happened that we can look back on with real strength, but we do also remember those that we’ve lost to HIV. And support people around the world - and it must be around the world - who are living with HIV. 

I know what brought so many people into this fight. It was seeing friends, partners, family members who were affected, and that is deeply personal. That’s why this fight is so important to so many of you, to all of us. And this government will ensure that the history, and not just the future of the campaign is absolutely driving this. 

And that’s why in our budget I was really pleased that we committed £11.8 billion to compensation for the victims of the infected blood scandal, that infected over 1,350 people with HIV. While nothing can make what they’ve been through right, I hope that that might make people finally able to move forward with their lives. 

And so as we look back, we remember, we understand why so many people are part of this such important cause. But as we want to move forward, we say thanks for their campaigning. I say thanks, I say keep going, I say keep pushing and prodding us. It’s really important as a government, we want to be accountable, we will be accountable. We want to push this forward. 

There will be times when you might get frustrated and say come on Keir, I thought you were going to do this more quickly. Although we got the 88 days rather than the 100. This is about being a government of service. You are entitled to come and say to us, come on do more, do it more quickly, you’ve got this far, well done. That is what we must do because it has to be a partnership as we go forward.  
An HIV diagnosis is unrecognisable from the 1980s, with testing and treatment it’s a manageable long-term condition. We were just talking about this with some of the people here tonight about what their expectations were when they were diagnosed and the very fact that it’s a manageable condition now is really incredible. But we’ve got to remember that the stigma caused so much more harm than the virus. I feel that the virus has got way down the road, not enough yet but way down the road, but the work on the stigma is still somewhere at the beginning of that journey.

It was brilliant earlier on to meet some of the people here who are going out as advocates, telling their story to other people. That’s never easy, to go out there, share your story, give confidence to other people who may be on that journey is so, so important. 
And that’s why in this room we’ve got the passion, we’ve got the skills, we’ve got the experience. And that’s why in our manifesto we committed to a new HIV Action Plan. Something I said we would do a year ago, something I was really proud that we put in our manifesto. And I’m really glad that we’ve started the work on that already. Important to make good on that commitment. 

And I tell you why. Because I am determined that this generation will be the one that ends new cases of HIV within England by 2030. I’m determined that we are going to do that. I said that last year, I say it again to you. We are now in power we can do something about it.

It’s very pleasing to be able to say that we will be expanding A&E opt-out HIV testing, a programme that has carried out over 2 million HIV tests in the last few years. And Wes who is here as the Health Secretary is leading on that.  Because we need to diagnose as many cases as quickly as possible, because that allows us then to give the best treatment possible and stop the virus being passed on to others. 

It’s about that testing, that early intervention, that opportunity to make such a difference. Because at the bottom of all this, it is about dignity. And that’s something I care deeply about. People often say: what’s the thing that you cling on to when you’re making decisions? For me, it’s dignity and respect. Human dignity, that sense of who we are, who we love, the people in our lives, the relationships, should be honoured and respected, whoever you are, whatever relationship you have. And that is about the dignity that runs through all of us. 

For many years I did human rights cases across the world and I remember the very first time I went through the Universal Declarations of Human Rights when I was a very young man and its one of the first big instruments on human rights and the most important word in that declaration was the human dignity. The dignity of the individual. It’s about treating people, no matter who they are, wherever they are, as a human being with dignity, who must never be crushed and must always be respected. 

And that is why removing the stigma is so important because that is the hard yards now and tackling the inequalities that affect too many people and fighting for every person affected by HIV. And as has already been said, that can’t stop at the borders. This is not one of those issues where we look at it only from a UK perspective. That’s where we start of course, but we have to commit to action around the world. 

I’m very well aware in the more volatile world, that we’ve lived in for a very long time, with many moving parts, with huge challenges across the world, that the challenge of leadership falls to us. We have to show leadership as the UK across the world on this issue, whatever the challenges that are out there.

And that’s why I can confirm that the UK will be giving new support to the Robert car fund really important to support people who are locked out of the HIV response. To make sure they can access the treatment they need. And we will be launching a grassroots countering roll-back programme. To focus on neglected health issues, work with marginalised people, improve access to healthcare and protect and strengthen people’s rights across the world. We must do that across the world. 

And we must make it top of our existing international commitment. And that is obviously when we’re meeting on particular issues, but we also need to be raising it in all the meetings with foreign counterparts, making sure the entire team does. We’ve got members of the cabinet, from the front bench, other members of the party here all with that missions to raise it wherever we are in the world. We will, of course, work with other organisations, we don’t believe in isolating ourselves in the UK, this sense that we can’t work across countries, all these things are under challenge.

So we work to protect and support those who are most vulnerable. So I promise that with this government you will not be alone, in the fight against HIV. We will stand together, for as long as it takes. In memory of those that we’ve lost. In support of those who are living with HIV today, and with a determination for the future. To be that first country in the world that ends new cases of HIV. Thank you so much for being here.